though it was William Murdoch who first made a practical working model of a locomotive. The first engine worked by steam in this town that we have record of was put up at some works in Water Street, in 1760.
Steamships.—If we do not build steamships in Birmingham, it was James Watt who proposed the use of screw propellers (in 1770) ; Wm. Murdoch, who invented the oscillating cylinder (in 1785); Watt and Bolton, who furnished engines (in 1807) for the first regular steam packet in America; and James Watt, jun., who made the first steam voyage on the sea (October 14, 1817), crossing the Channel in the Caledonia, and taking that vessel up the Rhine.
Stirchley Street, about a mile and a quarter north-east of King's Norton, has a Post Office, a Police Station, a Board School, and a Railway Station. Nothwithstanding these signs of modern civilisation, and the near proximity of Cadbury's Cocoa Manufactory, Stirchley Street is, as it has been for many a generation, a favourite country outing place for weary Brums having a chance hour to spend on change of scene.
Stocks.—Putting people in the stocks appears to have been a very ancient mode of punishment, for the Bible tells us that Jeremiah, the prophet, was put in the stocks by Pashur, and the gaoler who had charge of Paul and Silas at Philippi made fast their feet in a similar way. Whether Shakespeare feared the stocks when he refused to go back to "drunken Bidford," after sleeping off the effects of one carouse with the "Sipper's Club" there, is not chronicled, but that the stocks were not unknown to him is evident by their being introduced on the stage in "King Lear." The Worcester Journal of Jan. 19, I860, informs us that "this old mode of punishment was revived at Stratford-on-Avon, for drunkenness, and a passer-by asking a fellow who was doing penance how he liked it, the reply was—'I beant the first mon as ever were in the stocks, so I don't care a fardin about it." Stocks used to be kept at the Welsh Cross, as well as a pillory; and when the Corporation closed the old prison in High Street, Bordesley, they took over the stocks which formerly stood alongside the whipping-post, on the bank in front of the present G.W.R. Station. The last date of this punishment being inflicted in this town is 1844, when the stocks were in the yard of the Public Office in Moor Street.
Storms and Tempests.—A great storm arose on Wednesday, November 24, 1703, which lasted three days, increasing in force. The damage, all over the kingdom, was immense; and at no period of English history has it been equalled. l0,000 sheep were drowned in one part of Gloucestershire. We have no record of the immediately local loss.—In a storm on March 9, 1778, the windmill at Holloway Head was struck by lightning, the miller was hurt, and the sails shattered.—January 1, 1779, there was a violent gale, which, while it wrecked over 300 vessels on our coasts did great damage as far inland as Birmingham—Snowstorms were so heavy on January 23 and 24, 1814, that all communication between here and London was stopped for five days.—There was a strong gale September 26, 1853, during which some damage was done to St. Mary's Church, to the alarm of the congregation therein assembled.—A very heavy storm occurred June 15, 1858, the day after the Queen's visit, lasting for nearly three hours, during which time three inches of rain fell, one half in twenty minutes.—Some property in Lombard Street was destroyed by lightning, June 23, 1861; and parts of Aston, Digbeth, and the Parade were flooded same time.—There was a terrific thunderstorm, August 26, 1867; the rainfall being estimated at seventy-two tons per acre.—During a heavy thunderstorm, June 17, 1875, the lightning set fire to a workshop in
